From social data to better cities: URBACT launches public webinar series
URBACT, the European programme supporting sustainable and integrated urban development, has launched a public webinar series on social data aimed at city practitioners, policymakers, data experts and local stakeholders. The series runs from 15 January to 19 February 2026 and explores how cities can collect, analyse, monitor and convert social data into more effective local policies and action.
The initiative builds on a joint effort by four URBACT Action Planning Networks – One Health 4 Cities, U.R. Impact, NextGen YouthWork and Cities@Heart – which have spent 2025 investigating how cities across Europe use social data in local policy design. Their collaborative work has now culminated in this webinar programme, which is open to the wider public and offers practical insights, real-life examples and peer-to-peer exchanges.
The webinar series covers the full policy cycle:
- 15 January 2026 (10:00–11:30 CET): What do EU cities really know? Social data needs, challenges and turning them into policy – an opening session on current data practices and gaps in European cities.
- 22 January 2026 (10:00–11:30 CET): How to collect and manage data for social policies? – focuses on methods for gathering and organising social data.
- 29 January 2026 (10:00–11:30 CET): How to interact and draft social policies with data? – discusses how to use evidence to identify priorities and engage stakeholders.
- 19 February 2026 (10:00–11:30 CET): How to measure the impact of social policies with data? – explores approaches to monitoring and evaluating policy impact.
Throughout the series, speakers and participating cities will share their experiences of using social data to improve urban policies, with the aim of drawing conclusions and developing recommendations that can benefit the wider urban community. At the end of the cycle, the insights shared in the webinars will be summarised in a guide on data-driven urban policymaking.
Why join?
Participants will gain practical tools and methods for working with social data, learn directly from European cities facing similar challenges and strengthen their capacity to design, implement and evaluate social policies.
